City's water re-use project hits snag

Torin Halsey/Times Record News
Andy Bowles, of Bowles Construction, tests the diesel backup pump at the River Road Wastewater Treatment Plant using effluent water. The primary pump will be powered by a 500 horsepower electric motor and push about 5 million gallons of effluent water per day to the Cypress Water Treatment Plant.

Wichita Falls will have to conduct another full-scale verification test of the direct potable reuse project, but for how long is what city and state officials are to determine today.

Andrea Morrow, a spokesperson with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said in an email Friday morning the two sides are meeting today to discuss findings from their review of the more than 5,300 pages of documentation provided by the city on March 28.

“In response to the drought emergency, the TCEQ conducted a thorough, expedited review of the city’s report,” she said, adding the agency will provide their response to the first FSVT to the city and outline additional information needed from the second FSVT. “During the second FSVT, the city will demonstrate the entire DPR treatment process to ensure the equipment and city staff resources can demonstrate daily protection of public health and state and federal drinking water requirements can be met.”

Morrow said part of today’s discussion will determine the time frame for the additional testing.

City Manager Darron Leiker via email said late Friday morning discussions with TCEQ officials are going smoothly. He said he and other Wichita Falls officials appreciate the agency’s willingness to work with the city on this innovative project.

“While we wish that we were at the point of finalizing the full-scale verification for this project, we understand the need to ensure that everything is in place to protect the public health before this project is fully implemented,” he said. “The unique nature of this cutting-edge project requires caution and diligence, and we share the same goal of TCEQ to provide a safe drinking water supply for our customers.”

Leiker said “everyone believes this is a good project” and that both entities have the “common goal of getting it right.” The DPR project, he said, is receiving such a high level of scrutiny because it could be a water solution for all of Texas.”

The city began the first FSVT Jan. 29 and finished testing on March 10. The required report was submitted to TCEQ on March 28.

The $13 million direct potable reuse project connects River Road Wastewater Treatment Plant and Cypress Water Treatment Plant by way of a 12-mile temporary pipeline. About 7 million gallons of treated wastewater effluent from River Road flows through the pipe to Cypress where it is treated through microfiltration and reverse osmosis processes.

The treated water is then blended with raw water from Lake Arrowhead at a 50-50 ratio. The blended water then goes through a conventional method of treatment for the final stage.

Water treated during the FSVT period, as required by TCEQ, was sent down the river.

As reported by the Times Record News, city leaders have said the DPR project was the most cost-efficient and quickest way to get water back into the drought-starved water supply. The permanent pipeline is estimated to cost $29 million and take significantly longer to build because of the distance to Arrowhead and potential right-of-way negotiations with landowners.

The city intends to repurpose the temporary pipeline and use it for the permanent project, a move that will save about $6 million.